Amid the continuing concern over human rights violations in Afghanistan, a European think tank said that the Taliban has in recent weeks “begun to show its true colours.”

In a commentary published last week, the Netherland-based think tank stressed that the international community must redirect its attention to Afghanistan, where the situation has become dire.

“Whether the hardening of the Taliban’s attitude towards the legitimate and basic rights of the Afghan people, especially the women, is aimed at forcing the attention of the West towards it, or whether it is in reaction to the realization that it would never be acceptable to the world in its present avatar is, however, not yet clear,” said European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS).

According to the European think tank, people are being forced to sell their kidneys for as little as a couple of thousand dollars just to feed their starving children, and in which women are literally being reduced to rightless adjuncts.

“Over the past few days, girls have been banned from going to school beyond the sixth grade, women have been barred from travelling by air unaccompanied by a male relative, and men and women have been ordered to visit public parks only on separate days of the week that have been earmarked for each,” EFSAS said.

This is in addition to the slew of restrictions imposed on women earlier, whereby they had been banned from many government jobs that they were otherwise fully qualified to do, told what they can and cannot wear, and prevented from travelling alone by road to other cities, the think tank said.

Several women’s rights activists have been detained. In effect, within a year of seizing Kabul, the Taliban has totally reversed two decades of gains made by Afghanistan’s women.

Afghan activists told Human Rights Watch (HRW) that the Taliban have increased their surveillance of individuals and groups they accuse of being “opposed to the Islamic Emirate.” The threats follow a spate of attacks in which Taliban members have been abducted or killed.

The Taliban have previously carried out revenge killings of former government officials and have been responsible for forcibly disappearances or summarily executing former members of the security forces and others they accuse of being their enemies.

The statements heighten concerns that Taliban fighters in could use recent attacks as a pretext to commit abuses against perceived critics, including journalists and activists.